Ever wonder why a tiny bell can make so much sound? How about flicking the edge of a crystal wine glass? Better yet, what about a drum? If you remove the drum head and beat it with a drumstick is sounds like slapping spaghetti against the counter. The minute it is stretched over a brass kettle the sound fills a symphony hall. Resonance.
The minute you take a vibrating body and place it in a container, the container begins to vibrate sympathetically amplifying the sound. The more resonance you create, the less work the original vibrating body needs to achieve any given level of amplitude or loudness. The most exquisite example of this is the human voice. Two tiny little vocal chords suspended in your throat can make enough sound to break the aforementioned wine glass. Striking.
There are lots of factors controlling the resonance of the voice but the most obvious is the box it comes in. The primary resonating chamber is the pharynx – basically your throat. If your throat is closed down the resonating chamber is small. If your throat feels “Open” the resonating chamber is large. Mo space, mo resonance.
Here’s how you get there. Yawn. When you do, you experience an open throat. If you’re like most speakers you have been speaking with a closed throat all along, so this takes practice and repetition. Feel what it’s like to open the throat. Rinse and repeat. There are dozens of other exercises you can do to open the throat but knowing the sensation is the first part. Work with it and you’ll find that you can make more volume with less effort and less effort means more efficiency.
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